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How Poison Ivy Works · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house stuff Works
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast on Josh Clark,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry. Uh. Well, this
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: is stuff you should know here. Look like you're about
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: to describe in the room and then it's too depressing
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in here. Yeah, and you know we should uh might
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: as well announced that we're moving. I don't think we've
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: announced that yet, have we? No, we haven't. No, we
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: are finally moving. Um. You know, we've been in this
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: building since you and I and Jerry have been here,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: actually since how Supports has been around, right, I think
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: it started in North Carolina. Well, no, I mean Marshall
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Brain's kitchen. No, no, I mean the Atlanta version. I
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: genuinely don't know, but probably. Yeah. So we've been in
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: this building in Buckhead, Atlanta. That's not super exciting. And
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: our first office was kind of cool. This one is
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: decidedly not cool. We call this one the call sent there. Yeah,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: it's really it's just not a creative space. And so, um,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: when we were sold by Discovery Channel this summer, our
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: new parents, Blue Cora uh said, let's move you into
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: a cool creative awesome new space and we are all
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: super excited, um, except for you probably with the commute. Yeah,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: but I mean it's still it's pretty cool. I mean
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be an easy Kiah downstairs. Yeah you know. Yeah.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: I think it's the same people that developed Chelsea Market, yeah,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: in New York City, so they're doing something here too,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: and we're moving into it. Yeah. It's called pot City Market,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and um, it is the old Sears building from the
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: early nineteen hundreds, which I used to go to as
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: a kid when it was Sears in the nineteen hundreds.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Very funny and what was the nineteen hundred nineteen eighties?
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Oh wow, not bad, you were thinking nineteen twenties though,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I know where you're going. So we're we're trying to
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: have a bigger presence in Atlanta and to be a
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: little more visible in the world and the world, and
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: so we're gonna have a cool new office space and
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: it's just awesome. So thanks to our boss Jason and
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Jerry for working so hard on all this, and Michael
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and Izzy and everyone's done a great job. And we're
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: moving in like we're to do the last like six
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  Speaker 1: shows or so. We're recording here ish, Yeah, until we
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: move into our new new place. Yeah, so I just
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: wanted to say that we're super excited. That was nice. Chuck. Yeah,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: hats off to you too, killed a few minutes. So
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: that has nothing to do with poison ivy uh at all. No.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: And as a matter of fact, I'll bet there's not
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: much poison ivy around pot City Market. No, I hope not.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: It seems like the kind of place where they would
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: keep the poison ivy under control. Yeah, and I imagine
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: this also, by the way, it will be a show
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: where there will be many people scratching themselves. I did
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: while I was researching. A matter of fact, I just
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: scratched my ear while you said that. Yeah, but that
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with poison ivy. I have a
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: poison ivy story for you, alright. Um So, actually, when
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: I lived in the Highlands, um, let's see, not too
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: far from Pont City Market, you mean, and I had
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: this house we're reading, and it had a pretty substantial
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: poison ivy vine growing up this big oak tree in
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the front yard. Front yard. Yeah, you probably wouldn't have
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: seen it the back. Um, I for some reason had
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a suspicion that I was immune to poison ivy. Dude,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: I remember this. I don't know why I thought that,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: but I did. Even still, I took, you know, some precautions.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I wore, like gloves and a longsleeve shirt and jeans
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: and boots and everything like you're supposed to um. And
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: then I went out and decided to like take this
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: thing out. That's when you were in your homesteading days, right,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: So first things first, you have to shop the vine, right,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Because the like grows alongside the tree, like latches onto
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: it to grow up. It can so um when it
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: when it gets its meat hooks onto the tree. I
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: think that's a technical term for it. Um Like, it's
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: kind of tough to pull away, so you want to
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: chop it off first, and then you pull it away
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: from the tree. And this thing was growing way up
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: this oak tree. It was a substantial poison ivy vine.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: So when I pulled it down, not only did a
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: lot of the poison ivy detritus fall down onto me,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the whole vine, like a twenty ft vine, just fell
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: down on top of me. And I'm I'm looking up
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: as the stuff's falling down. It's going into my face,
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: it's getting under my shirt, it's going into my mouth,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: my eyes, it's everywhere, right, And I'm thinking, man, I'm
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: really glad I'm immune to poison ivy. Still, I don't
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: remember why I thought this. I'm picturing he's standing there
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: with your mouth light up pretty much like Wow, it's
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: a lot of poison ivy that just came down. Um.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: And so I'm standing there, I'm I'm starting to clean
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: it up, and I'm as no rash is coming around.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I'm like, awesome, I am immune to poison ivy. I
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: was right, because it's been like two minutes and no response.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Well fast forward to like an hour or two later
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: that it was pretty quick. I was like, oh no,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: I told you too. I was like, I'm immune, and
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: she was like, you need to get out of those
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: clothes and take a shower. But it was too late,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: And I guess you remember I do. It was. It
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: was really bad for like a couple of weeks. Yeah,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: I have always still thought I am immune, and I
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: maybe because I've still never gotten poison ivy at all.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: That is really surprising. Yeah, and I've been in contact
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: with it plenty as an outdoors enthusiast in a camper
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: and hiker um. But I remember I was telling Jerry
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: uh in between my father used to get it like crazy.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Like one of the memories I have a child as
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a child is my it seems like he constantly had
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: poison ivy and that pink uh is that calamine lotion? Yes,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: just constantly slathered on his body and a lot of
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: um myths being bandied about, like I would catch it
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: from him or don't scratch because he'll spread it. Yeah,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: neither one of those things are true. No. Jod Apatow's
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: wife lied and Big Daddy did she say that in
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Big Daddy? Yeah, she was like the little kid was
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: scratching and she was like, don't let him scratch. Here,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: put this uh like frozen broccoli on it. It will
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: spread the rash if if you scratch it. Not a lie,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: So knock wood. I still have not gotten poison ivy. Um.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: And that was one of our best intros ever. That's
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: a good one. I'm I'm itchy now. Yeah, so um,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: let's talk about poison ivy. Chuck. That was like a
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: good story where one of us is a bone head. Man.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I can't believe it, and I think it was just
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: from like having been outside and not like getting a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: rash poison ivy. But I guess they just hadn't come
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: into contact with it. Well, no, or we'll learn that
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: you could have been immune for a while and developed
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: UM after a repeated exposure. Yeah, that can happen too,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: but usually it goes the opposite way that the more exposure,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: the less it happens. Yeah, which is why a lot
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of adults like basically age out of UM an allergy
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: to poison ivy if they come in contact with it
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: enough to I'll have to ask my dad actually, next
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: someone to see him. So apparently back in the day,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: poison ivy UM was used as an ornamental shrub or
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: vine because it comes in both varieties UM. And then
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: they were like, something that causes this much of a
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: reaction in humans has to have some sort of medicinal benefits.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: And actually there was at least one guy who really
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: researched UM poison ivy and as a medicine, and supposedly
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: he cured skin ailments. He made like some sort of
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: tonic that he rank and said it cured like a
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: stomach ailment, although it made him sweat and urinate more
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: than usual. UM and this guy was a real urinator too,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: so that's something he was. But he apparently was one
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: of the only people who really looked into it, and
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: other scientists were like, we're just leaving that thing alone, right,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I did not see that, Okay. I think I saw
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: that with it from medicine, which shouldn't be surprising, you know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: because they had a lot of homespun sciences. They had
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: it figured out, sure, but um, it was a It
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't until I think, like the well the early twentieth
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: century that a Japanese researcher by the name of Majima
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: isolated what it was in poison ivy that um makes
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: us allergic and which is why it has a Japanese name. Correct, Yes,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: that's exactly right, which is urushiol. You are you s
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: h i O L. Yeah, after the Japanese erushi, which
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: means laquer. Yeah. Uh. And basically it is um. It
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: is the chemical that is in the sap that is
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: what causes the rash. And apparently the rash is actually
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: called poison ivy as well. Oh really, that's what it
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: says here. It's this poison ivy is the red itchy
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: rash caused by the plant that bears its name. Oh yeah,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: so I always just called it. Well, people say you've
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: got poison ivy. Yeah, that's right. I never thought of
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: it like that. Actually, that's exactly right. So what a breakthrough.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: That's amazing. And the way you get poison ivy is
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: by coming into direct contact with this erusio Um. It's
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: in the plant, it's in the leaves, it's in the roots,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: it's in the stems, and uh, you can get it.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Not only well, you have to come in contact with that,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't mean from the plant. It can be
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: on a garden ray candle or a football that you
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: throw in the woods, or your animals fur but um,
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: it's still has to be that actual chemical compound and
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: it's got staying power to suppose the the rush all
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: can um stay potent for years? Yeah, I saw that
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: like a rake from last summer. If you pick it
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: up the next year, you can still get it. Yep,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: that's insane. So chuckers, if you are immune to poison
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: ivy as you claim, you fall into the lucky of
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: people estimated who um are immune to poison ivy. But
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: for the rest of us, we are allergic to arushi
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: al yeah, and it doesn't take much. Um they they say,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: here one billionth of a graham is all it takes sometimes.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: And this is not just poison ivy. We should point
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: out there is also poison sumac and poison oak and
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: western or eastern and western poison oak, which which are
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: all part of the same family. That I'm not going
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: to try and pronounce. Uh, let me give it a try.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: And a card dish c A man I said it
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: like out loud while I was studying, and it didn't
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: take And a card a c A anacardius say, Anacardius say, okay,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: that sounds about right. Would you see any vowels? It's
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: very difficult. Yeah, The A C E A E at
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the end really kind of messes yep, but a C
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: A yeah, so anacardius c A yeah. I think that's right.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I did it one day. We're going to practice these
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: things twelve times before we record instead of on the
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: air nex for Riveting podcasting. Uh So, like I said,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: it's in the stems, the leaves, the roots, the whole shebang.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: If you want to avoid the rash, you have to
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: avoid the plant. And just because the old saying leaves
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: free leaves three, leave it be. It's true in a
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: lot of cases, but not always. Homer Simpson says, leaves
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: a four eats some more. I think I remember that.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: That's so funny. And you said that it's found in
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the roots, the stems, the leaves, the whole shebang. Um.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: But even after the plant dies, arushiol can stick around.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: That's how That's how tough this stuff is. Sure, Like you, um,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: you killed that vine in your front yard, and what
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: you do? Did you leave it there? Did you eventually
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: get around to h I cut it and pulled it
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: right down. It was a potent as the day is
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: long when I cut it. No, But what you do
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: after it was laying there on the ground. I just
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: cleaned it up. I was immune. Remember, Oh so you did?
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: You finished it up and put it in like a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: garden bag or something. I was all it was, like,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I might as well have just rolled in it naked.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: You probably thought, though, you were like, yeah, I showed you. Yeah.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: I think I probably was cursing it as I was
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: pulling it because it was hanging onto the tree so much.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, man, that stuff is like cement um. But
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: the point being, even after you had killed it and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: chopped it up into tiny pieces. It still has that
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: active ingredient. And like you said, it doesn't take a
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: much like a billion of a craym. That's right, that's
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: not very much of this stuff. That's like a drop
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: let than the drop um. So we said, Um the
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: leaves three is a good rule to go by. The
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: center leave is usually larger, but not always. Um. Here's
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: some other ways to identify it though. It's generally in
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: low uh, in a cluster like a low weed like
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: or a vine like you said, that can climb right,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: So it's either along the ground or it's climbing. This
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: isn't helping difference, you know, it really isn't um by
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: river banks, in the woods, moist areas, if you go
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: hiking a lot or camping, you're gonna see it everywhere. Uh.
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: And the leaves are smooth and have a little teeth
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: sometimes serrated. Yeah, like a serrated edge a good way
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: to put it. Their color also changes, which makes it difficult.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I don't really remember that either.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: I had no idea. I thought i'd just turned brown.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I thought they went from green to brown when it
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: went dormant. Torment. Apparently it's a seasonal thing, like a
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: reddish than green than yellow. Yeah, which is another reason
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: why they were sold as ornamental vines for a while.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: That makes sense. But yeah, people are like, no, this,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: this is just foolishness. Uh and white berries apparently, and um, well,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: let's take a message break and then we'll talk a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: little bit about the oaks and sumacs. Oh boy, right
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: after this, all right, oaks and sumas, my friend, they
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: are uh a little different in appearance. Ah yeah, so
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: as poison oak is called that because it grows into
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: a shrub. It's thought about that, right do you walk
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: along You're like, oh, look at that's cute little oak tree.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: You're gonna be so big, and you put your face
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: all over it or whatever. You got poison oak on
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: your face, you dummy. Don't ever get too close to
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: an oaks, apply because it could kill you and your
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: whole family if I wanted to. That's right, And they
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: can be from a foot to six ft tall and
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: um on the west coast and in the south although
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I don't think we said that you're gonna find poison
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: ivy everywhere, but it says southwest. But I looked at
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: a map and it looked like kind of just California.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Oh really, yeah, I mean it kind of squirted out
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a little bit there into Arizona some like in the desert,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: but then other parts of Arizona obviously you're gonna find
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: it um. But most of the country you can get
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: your poison ivy except Alaska Hawaii, because those are great place.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: I'm surprised Alaska. I'm surprised Hawaii doesn't have it. Everything
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: grows in Hawaii. Yeah, but I don't know why does
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: it strike me as like woodsy. It seems more like, oh,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of woods there, lush and palm trees
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: like rainforest e right, but I mean this stuff grows
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: in moist areas. I don't know what to think anymore. Well,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: this is the thing, like you can't identify it. It
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: grows everywhere, even the places they say it doesn't grow.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's it. We're in trouble basically. So the oak,
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the leaves um can also be in threes, but they
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: are thick, green and hairy on both sides. I think
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: the hairy thing is what's the dead giveaway with the
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: family uh and a d C A yeah, yeah, And
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: then the sumac. You're gonna find that in swamps, uh
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: or in the northeast and midwest along the rivers. And
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: it's a woody shrub. I love that word sumac. Yeah
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: do too. It makes me think of like a Native
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: American like just rowing a canoe of their own making,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: like down a river. Wow, sumac, that's what it evokes
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: in my my mind's eye. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Uh.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And they have stems with rows of seven to thirteen
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: smooth edged leaflets. It doesn't look anything like poison oak
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: or poison ivy. No, And you know, you should know
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: what this stuff looks like pretty much by now. But
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: if you if you're a city dweller and you're gonna
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: like go to the country looking up online, just look
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: at some photos. Can you identify poison sumac? No, but
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: poison ivy for sure? Yeah? I usually can, or if
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I have a question about it, I just assume it
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: is poison ivy and steer clear. Yeah. I don't think
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: I've ever seen the sumac. I haven't either until this, uh,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: this article. There's a little I mean it's kind of pretty.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Oh that is pretty. They'll just put your face in
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: this destroy you so um, chuck, I guess let's let's
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: stop beating around the bush here. Okay, uh terrible yeah, Um.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: What exactly is going on when poison ivy and specifically
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: arushio comes into contact with your skin? Why do you
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: break out in a terrible, terrible rash? Well, it's pretty
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: much the same if you remember our allergy podcast, the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: same kind of thing is going on. From what I
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: can tell, it's like a mistaken response correct to something
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: that shouldn't give you a rash, that's all right, which
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: is why you see animals eating it like crazy and
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: rolling around in it because they're like they're they're not
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: dumb humans with dumb immune systems, right, Like this stuff
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: really is no big deal. Yeah, your immune system when
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: it encounters arushi all turns into like some like bone
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: head at the bar who's like got this heightened like
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: responsive to a girlfriend and like wants to fight everybody.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: That's what your T cells do in your immune system.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: So the arushiol, because of the way that it it's
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: um it's formed the compound that it is, it makes
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: it through the skin pretty easily, and as it has
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: absorbed your body, your skin actually um metabolizes it and
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: breaks it up into little components and presents it to
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: your T cells, your immune system cells, to say, are
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: these guys cool? You recognize these guys? And again your
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: T cells are like, well, no, I want to fight
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: this guy. And he calls his boys the Cite of Kings, right, Yeah,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: the Site of Kings come along and they're like, yeah,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: let's fight. Yes, look at those white blood cells because
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: they are some tough dudes, right. And the white blood
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: cells come in and they're huge, and they turn into
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: my macro fages, that's right, and they eat stuff, They
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: eat the foreign substance like crazy, and in doing so,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: that's where you get your your rash. It damages the tissue, yeah,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: because they're they're not just focusing on the arushiol, because
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: they're indiscriminately just messing the whole place up. The whole
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: bar just goes to pot because there's like classes broken
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: and stools thrown and everything is just messed up. Yeah.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: It's like the movie Hooper, uh with Burt Reynolds. Yeah,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I haven't seen that. One one of the great bar
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: fights of all time. Oh, I gotta see it. Yeah. Um,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: So that's what's going on basically, it's that's where the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: inflammation comes from. It is just like an allergies with
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: hay fever. It's a mistaken response to that pollen in
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: hay fever skates, and it's just your dumb body not
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: knowing that it's really shouldn't be a big deal exactly,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: which is why, over time, over repeated exposure to poison ivy,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: even those lunkhead t cells figure out like, oh, your pal,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: I don't have to mess with you, right, I know,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: my girlfriend's pretty, it's cool. I'd look at her to write.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: They calm down over a while, you know. Um, So eventually,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: I guess if you just rubbed poison ivy on yourself
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: enough times, your your response wouldn't occur at all. Yeah,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: but the there's a myth that you can eat poison
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: ivy to develop that immune response. Do not do that.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Don't do that because you could die, like seriously, right,
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: So what we just described can happen on your internal
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: organs rather than your skin. The macro files has come
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: in and indiscriminately just start eating everything and damaging the tissue.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: That's one thing. If it's on your arm, it's another
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: thing if it's on your esophagus. You know. Yeah, you
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: could think it's swell shut or it's just as bad
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: your lungs too, which is another reason why when you
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: destroy uh poison ivy, Yeah, you don't burn it, because
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: when you burn it, the suiall vaporizes and you can
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: inhale it. And that's really really bad. That is really bad. Um.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: You mentioned that you thought you were okay after a
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: few minutes. Uh. There can be something called delayed hypersensitivity.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: That it's always that Yeah, because yeah, you're not going
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: to rub it on your skin and get it in
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: seconds later. That's immediate hypersensitivity. Um. If you have delayed hypersensitivity,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: it could take hours. Um, it could take days. You
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: might think you're all good in a few days later
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: you're gonna get it, which is one of the reasons. Um,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the myth of if you scratch it will spread it
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: happens because you might see it popping up on other
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: parts of your body days later, and it's not from
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: scratching or spreading. It's because just that delayed response. Yeah,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: but you know more about that, right, Yeah. So the
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: whole thing what what we found out people called poison ivy.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: The rash is technically called allergic content dermatitis. You can
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: get it from all sorts of things like laundry detergent
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: or like an itchy like tag. It's basically a skin
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: irritation from an allergic reaction, right and with the delayed kind, Yes,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: it takes anywhere from you know, hours, two days, but
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: it's gonna happen. Um. There's also a media which is
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: like say a beasting or like a peanut where like
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: you within minutes like you're in big trouble. H And
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: actually if you do start to deplay display the same
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: kinds of symptoms that you would with like an immediate reaction,
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: you really need to go to the hospital. Like if
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: your throat swells up from poison ivy, or your your
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: lips turn blue from poison ivy, or you have a
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: fever that's like over a hundred degrees from it that
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: those are all signs that you need to go to
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the hospital. This isn't a normal reaction to poison ivy.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: If your lips turn blue at all in life, go
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to the hospital. That's just Dr Chuck jiming in. So
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: we're gonna bust some more myths than all that kind
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of jazz um, right after this. Okay, So Chuck, Yes,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I said that we would bust some more myths. That's right,
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: let's do that, okay. So one of the things you
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: said is that, um, poison ivy doesn't spread it like
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: if you have it. Remember when I had it? Yeah, Uh,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: if I brushed up against you, you wouldn't have gotten
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: poison ivy unless I had some sureiall on my skin. Correct.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: So the poison ivy rash itself is not contagious, no,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: but if it is still on your body, you could
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: spread it like if I was. If you and I
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: were in one of our famous camping hiking retreats, sure yeah,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: and we were in the woods and I got out
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: on my hand and then like slapped you on the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: back and told you what a good pal you were.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And of course you hike shirtless, so you might get
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: it because I actually have the compound on my hand.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: If it could make it through the thick matte of
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: hair on my back, then yeah, I might catch poison
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: ivy from that. Well, you're hairy on both sides, just
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: like the poison oak. Right. Um, But let's say you
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: do come into contact, you're out in the woods, you're camping,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: and you know you're like, oh, man, crap, I've been
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: avoiding it, but I just got it all over my
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: foot and I realized I did that. What you want
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: to do is just act super fast, UM, get it
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in the creek or wash it off if you have
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: water immediately with just plain water. Um, the quicker you
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: do it, the better your chances. I'm not having that response.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: And you also want to use cold water to warm
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: water is gonna open your pores, which will allow that
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: sure you all to be absorbed that much faster. It's
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: no good. Apparently warm our hot water will help after
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: you've gotten it though with the itching symptoms, like a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: really hot shower, but not at first. You rinse off
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: that skin, take off all your clothes that have come
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: into contact with the plant. You're gonna wash those is quickly.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: Spots doable um as well. So you're now you're naked
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: out in the woods. You're naked and afraid. Um, you're
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: washing your clothes. You want to wash your skin at
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: that point with this open water, after you've already washed
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: it off initially, Yeah, rinsed it and then um, if
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: you have if you're at home, get some isoprople alcohol
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: in cotton and then do that next. If you're out
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: in the woods, you probably won't have that. Yeah. So,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: like you said, if you act fast, you might be
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: able to prevent a reaction. And that's because you are
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: washing the um, are sure you all off before your
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: skin absorbs it. Once your skin absorbs it, you have
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: a very limited amount of time to take some sort
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of steroid like a corticosteroid um that actually reduced the
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: body's immune response naturally. Um or like an anahistamine is
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: a good a good example of that, yeah, or a
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: topical if um. If you're super allergic, you may even
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: have a prescription for something like this right which you
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: want to take right away. But if not, uh, just
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: you know, get the cord eight or land a court
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: and rub that all over your body like my dad did.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: Look like a weird pink beast. But the problem is
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: what these windows closed pretty quickly because once once the
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: sure re all is absorbed, and once your body mounts
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: this immune response, once those macro fasts go in and
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: do all this tissue damage, your body has to heal
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: from that no matter what, even if your body is
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: no longer responding to this foreign invader that's actually harmless. Yeah,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the damage is still done. And you've got yourself this um,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: this dermatitis that you've got to deal with. Yeah, and
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: it's gonna itch and they you shouldn't scratch it, not
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: because you'll spread it, because you can actually get infected.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: And I don't remember were you did you scratch a lot?
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: Are you pretty good about it? I mean I wanted
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: to what were some of your little like, uh, I
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: know when someone that's infected like that with something as
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: an adult, they do all kinds of things like I'm
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: not scratching, I'm just like rubbing my face on my
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: pillows saper hard right now. I Um, I used a
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: lot of um, a lot of self control, a lot
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: of smacking, Like you can smack the thing um and
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: it won't scratch. And the whole reason you're not scratching
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: is not again, you're not gonna spread it by scratching.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: But what you're gonna do conceivably is, um, you're gonna
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: open up these sores because they can get like full
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: on blisters, right, and if you break one of these
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: blisters and you've got like poop under your fingernails you
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: can infect the blister and get up like a skin
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: infection and end up with scars. It's not a good jam.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: So if you smack it, you're not gonna scratch it
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: or you're not gonna break the skin, but you can
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: still alleviate that itch that's generated by your skin repairing itself.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Because you never know when you might have poop under
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: your fingernails exactly, So just defer to the smack. I'll
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: bet there's a substantial amount of the population who has
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: poop under their finger nails at any given point in time.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I don't want that weird stat not at all. Uh So,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: how shower once you have them. The rash can help
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: sue the itching a little bit. Um calamine lotion can help.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: Baking soda paste if you're into more natural things, baking
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: soda and water just mixed together. Basically rub that on
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: there and the old oatmeal bath with any kind of
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: rash will sue things a little bit. I think I
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: used just tons of calamine lotion. Yeah, if I'm not mistaken,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: I think I blocked a lot of that out. Then
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: would you mean just walk by chicken her head at
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: you every time she tell you she took good care
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: of me. But yeah, it's good. Yeah. You can also
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: just kind of get around the whole thing by using
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: something like ivy block, which uses something called that's like
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: if you go camping and you know your allergic, you
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: can take something beforehand that's a preventative. That's what's called Yeah,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: bend o quatum. Bento quatum. Basically, it's like acts as
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: a shield that prevents this stuff, the osrei off being
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: absorbed by your skin. Interesting and it works to to
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: degree supposedly. Uh, if you do want to get rid
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: of it at your house, you should do what Josh
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: did sort of uh, And that you wore boots and
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: long sleeves and gloves and all that stuff, so you're
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: on the right track. Just don't gaze upward in wonder
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: as this stuff falls down onto your face. Mouth agape. Man,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: that was just bad, not good. But um, if you
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: do dress up like that and cover yourself, you want
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: to pull it out by the roots, get it all
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: out of there. And um, because it's a I mean
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: like it's a viney and vines can establish themselves pretty
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: easily with just the slightest fragment of living plant. That's right,
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: don't burn it. No, no, no, it's not just bad
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: news for you, it's bad news for all your neighbors too. Yeah,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I imagine, Uh, you got anything else? The old man
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: clark over, there's burning his poison ivy. You're right, I
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: got nothing else. I don't either. That's poison ivy. If
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you want to know more about it, including seeing pictures
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: of poison ivy and poison Sumac and poison oak before
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: you go camping, you can type in poison ivy at
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the search bar at how stuff works dot com. You know,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: bring up this great article. And since I said search parts,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: time for a listener and mail. I'm gonna call this
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: part two of Scientific Method from a scientist. Hi, Josh
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Chuck and Jerry J. E. R. I. I feel like
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: I'm not getting her name right, So I'm sensing that
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: these scientists are um there. They don't feel good about
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: their spelling abilities, no, but they're doing a great job.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: They are just her an episode on scientific Method and
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: want to say, you guys did a pretty good job
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: with it in its history. And I say this as
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: a practicing scientist. Uh. And he had a great long email,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: but um, I'm gonna have to edit for content, but
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: he talks a little bit about the woes of current science.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: He said, it is a problem that many young academics
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: spread about. The problems are real, but I want to
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: underscore the fact that in many ways it is a
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: golden age of science right now. So much good work
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: is getting done. It just happens to be a terrible
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: time to be a scientist. A more funding would help
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: alleviate some of the strain academia is under, but as
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: you point out, there's some systematic reforms that need to
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: happen as well, and many are discussing just what a
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: workable solution is. I have tried to stick as close
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: to the scientific method as possible in my career and
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: haven't been all that productive because of it. I'd rather
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: publish something solid than put something out there this potentially
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: wrong or flawed. Um. Being able to publish negative data
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: would be good. But even more to the point, science
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: almost works well as improv which is the yes and
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: approach where scientist proposes a hypothesis and supports it, and
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: another scientist picks it up and says, well, yes, if so,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: then this should also be true as well, and extends
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: the original work, so he's a collaborator. The scientific method
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: is a huge part of our lives and needs to
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: be taught to all. I say we need more science literacy,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: not more scientists, but it can be tricky. Science and
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: nature are truly amazing, and yet we're not willing or
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: able to support all those who'd want to make it
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: a career. He gives us the cheers. That is Ian
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Street PhD. Nice job, you know, knows a great email. Yeah,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: and good for you for sticking to the scientific method,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: even to your detriment. Hang in there. I hope you
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: uh write a great paper one day that gets you
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: accolades and money with great spelling too. That's right. Uh.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: If you want to be like Ian and talk to us,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: you Should Know. You can send us an email to
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast at how stuff Works dot com, and as always,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: you can join us at our home on the web,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know dot com for more on this
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff Works
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: dot com.